Before doing anything, I ask myself, "Do I have the talent to even bother?..."
 
Now of course the answer is a resounding, "NO!" So I find the best practice is to work on your denial, before starting anything! Just work on getting that self-defeating pride and all round lack lustre panache, into a hardened callous! Self delusion is your hard earned reward!
 
From there, you are just a few beers away from having the courage to commit that Cosby Sweater of a sound, to tracks! In the past, sub-mediocrity awaited... But thanks to better VST's and Melodyne? You are just that much closer to almost not sucking!
 
Which brings me to the second to last step: Have a few more beers and marvel at yourself in solitude!
 
Final step: Get an equally inebriated friend to listen to the track. That friend can then heap fake, drunken praise, dripping with euphemisms and unearned back pats, upon your sozzled soul!
 
There, you are done! A legend in your own basement...

Thats rather depressing Royal.

Sorry, but this is not a thread for fixing problems. I would start a new thread and post this there if I were you. 

Another idea is if one can get another display monitor. The X series is built for duel monitors. Yes it works better than 8.5 did on a single monitor but it really shines with two. 
 
 

Hey John , your a forum host, that might come in handy to delete pointless posts, (like a few above :) 
It would be nice if people post the OT and not ask questions. I'm learning already.
 
Mettelus- I change most all of Sonars file paths to my DATA drives. Some I never use, like Video,  so they stay default.  So my best practice is always take control of where any software stores my files. If you look in my default windows folders, they are all empty. Only one gets used is "downloads" which of course rarely will be used as that stuff is done on another machine. The big difference I think around here is having a DAW off line makes housekeeping way simpler. Those who use their DAW for everything have a bigger challenge at managing what happens behind their backs in C drive. And that is why I stay offline. I don't need to be dealing with all that weird stuff. My Computer will be the same from day to day for a long time running.   
 
Johnny's tip of the day#2 - "CTRL W"   Toggles the now time behavior. This is handy for when you want the now time to either return to where you was, say for punch in re takes, or stop dead in it's tracks, for when you hear a turd that needs polishing.  

When I start working with a new DAW I test and adjust for latency with out delay

Johnny nice tips, thank you. 

Thanks for deleting my post....but with respect... you are not me!!
 
I would have thought that any constructive input on the use of the TI chip-set issue with Firewire was a positive angle on best practice - and perhaps help others avoiding a potential pitfall.
 
Or is "best practice" intended only for the realms of the elevated??

I have a sticker on top of my interface reminding me to check wifi and latency on whatever I plug it into so I don't forget. Proper practice latency is not proper live gig latency (where all monitoring is direct through the interface).
 
I'm also quick on the interface total reset. Sometimes all the routings of the previous gig don't apply.
 
I'm a heavy user of track templates (although for some reason I don't use a lot of project templates).

I also use a USB hub, originally so 2 computers could share everything as my printer is on it too. Normally it works fine. However, occasionally Windows will not recognize some of my hardware so I end up flipping the hub's power switch ON & OFF to get it working or else connecting direct.
 
2 monitors
 
All hardware that can be is rackmounted with an 8-switch power strip so I can select what I want ON without powering up everything at once.
 
The only thing missing is a surge protector/battery backup. Mine died in the line of duty a few years ago and have failed to replace it. It is top of my list for this month as we are entering the "power outage season".